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ACA’s annual meeting, the National Chiropractic Leadership Conference (NCLC), is packed with great educational content and world-class presenters. Join us Feb. 28-March 3 in Washington, D.C., to hear from some of the profession’s most compelling thought leaders. Here we pose several questions to one of our featured speakers: Jay Greenstein, DC. Dr. Greenstein will be speaking about the relevance of clinical practice guidelines.

Presentation Explores New Employment Opportunities for DCs in Community Health Centers

ACA’s annual meeting, the National Chiropractic Leadership Conference (NCLC), is packed with great educational content and world-class presenters. Join us Feb. 28-March 3, 2018, in Washington, D.C., to hear from some of the profession’s most compelling thought leaders. Here we pose several questions to one of our featured speakers: James Lehman, DC, MBA, who will be participating in a panel discussion on "Models of Integrated Practice."

"It's the most wonderful time of the year...." As it is fast approaching, you might think of Christmas, or even Thanksgiving, when you hear this phrase, but I am referring to the National Chiropractic Leadership Conference (NCLC)! There is simply no other event like it. NCLC 2018 will be my 5thNCLC and my second as a doctor, and it truly is my favorite time of the year! I consider it an honor to attend this event and I have met some of my closest friends while attending. I’d like to share my insights into the event and my take on its’ importance.

The Student ACA (SACA) hosted its annual fall Business Meeting on Sept. 18 over Adobe Connect. During the meeting, Among several actions, SACA adopted the same thematic goals as the ACA. It was important to the student leaders to stay in step with the direction of ACA to ensure continuity when students graduate and become ACA chiropractors.

Back pain remains a persistent and debilitating problem for many people in the United States and around the world. News that the opioid crisis in America has been fueled in part by the overprescribing of pain medications for low back pain amplifies the need for the chiropractic profession to continue spreading its message about the value of a conservative approach to back pain treatment. To this end, National Chiropractic Health Month (NCHM) goes “Back to Basics” this year by focusing on overall health and injury prevention as key strategies in maintaining spinal health throughout a lifetime—and highlighting the growing body of research supporting a conservative approach to back pain treatment.

Nearly two years ago, ACA embarked on a new journey – a branding initiative – to better understand how we can relate to and remain relevant to members now and in the future. We hired a well known branding consultant who reached out to members, non-members, other health care providers and a variety of stakeholders to ask what ACA means to them. After more than 30 hours of interviews, hundreds of survey responses and volumes of research, our consultant’s recommendations were presented to ACA’s Board of Governors last year on how best to redefine our brand. The results were a wake-up call, to say the least. While some of the information uncovered was expected, other findings and comments were uncomfortable to hear. But we had to hear them.

The first ACA Choosing Wisely® recommendation states: In the absence of red flags, do not obtain spinal imaging (X-rays) for patients with acute low-back pain during the six weeks after the onset of pain.Some doctors of chiropractic may be surprised that ACA included this recommendation. There are many DCs who are committed to delivery of high-quality patient care that currently take or order X-rays on a majority of their patients because they believe that X-rays are a necessary component of the examination process. There are a number of reasons why this is the case.

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) is seeking interested volunteers to fill a vacant seat on the ACA-Political Action Committee (ACA-PAC) as officer-at-large. ACA-PAC is the voice of the ACA and doctors of chiropractic in the political arena. It consists of ACA chiropractors from across the country who are active members in local and federal politics.

*Member-Exclusive Content* The American Chiropractic Association’s Council on Chiropractic Pediatrics (ACA-CCP) is excited to announce a research competition open to all doctors of chiropractic and chiropractic students. ACA and SACA members are invited to write a narrative literature review on a topic of their choice related to pediatric chiropractic care. Doctors and students are encouraged to work together in teams and must submit their topic and team members by Monday, May 22, 2017.

The ACA House of Delegates (HOD) took action on several policy resolutions, new and old, at its 2017 annual meeting March 17-18 in Washington, D.C., which was held in conjunction with DC2017 this year.